I’ve got some bones to pick and I’m not talking about cooking anymore.

It’s already starting to sound a bit, well, pedestrian here. See, the Utopianist has a dark side. Though chirping with the birds is as important a pursuit to me, so is some good old-fashioned, pie in the sky, polemicizing.

As the good student I was raised to be, I’m doing my research: I’m reading Thomas More’s Utopia -I ought to know the source of my fantasy and alias, right? As the bad student I have always turned out to be, I’m reaching conclusions before I’ve even finished the first chapter.

Notes in the margin so far are showing that I indeed possess some qualities of a Utopian citizen. For those of you who don’t know, the main protagonist of More’s Utopia, and a citizen of its lauded lands, is Hythloday, which is Latin for The Peddler of Nonsense. He is exemplary of both the beauty and stupidity of Utopia.

Utopia isn’t a simple place; it’s not exactly good or bad. It’s open ended. It presents itself as a wonderful, egalitarian place, but also relies on a degree of absolutism for anything to actually work.

Like many of Hythloday’s irreconcilable maxims [giving examples is a little too term paper for me] a lot of my imaginings of a Utopian ideal really aren’t quite materialisable.

It’s like the blocks on our consciousness to grasp the expanse of the cosmos or time -we simply haven’t the capacity, the terms, the THINGS to really GET it. My Utopia doesn’t have a chance because not only does the language for it elude me, but the basis for it relies on a structure being in place that simple can’t be built here.

The trouble with Hythloday, and the trouble with me, is that we still believe in it.


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On a less bonkers-sounding end of things, in other research-based discoveries, I’ve already buggered up a couple of points on this blog.

FIREMAKING ERRORS

1. I wasn’t clear about the fact that taking DEAD branches from a tree is great for kindling, just be sure you’re not messing with LIVING branches –it does nature and your fire, no good. Dead ones are apparent from their spindly, dark, brittleness. They particularly easy to spot at the base of pine trees.

2. I meant to say LINT from your dryer is a great fire starter, not DRYER SHEETS, which are uber toxic [and you shouldn’t be using anyway].

(Which is leading me on an obsessive search to understand what to burn and what not to burn in terms of pollution and toxicity.)

My personal toxicity expert had this to say regarding the burning of lint:

"...it all depends on what kind of fibers are in it. if it includes all of those weird chemicals from dryer sheets that have been liquified by the water from the wet laundry and then dried, it might mean that it's no different than the dryer sheets themselves. in general, i guess if it's cotton, linen, or wool it's fine. looking around i did see a "recipe" for making lint firestarters by pouring wax into egg-cartons filled with lint, these could be tossed into fires. that's kinda cool."

Indeed it is -thanks Sarah!

3. Birch bark, is awesome kindling/starter. But I’m unclear on how cool it is to harvest it. I know that the oils in birch bark make it easy to light even when wet, so I’m going to say leave it alone on living trees, and pull it off of fallen trunks only…

Righty then…ironing out the wrinkles.

Building a campfire: The basics

For this entry, we'll focus on straightforward, best-case-scenario fire-making.


The main components of a good fire are:

The Firestarter.
The Kindling.
The Logs.
The Lighter.
The Axe.


With most aspects of camping if you do thorough pre-planning, once you're out there everything is quite well taken care of. So having certain elements in advance is really important.

The Fire Starter:
The easiest thing to do and a great re-use, is to collect your used drier sheets. They take up a modicum of space and ignite very quickly.

There are people who swear by oven-dried pine cones dipped in wax, which is cute, good-smelling, and would be a fun little project for kids.

You can also dredge cotton balls in petroleum jelly and keep them in a tin.


The Kindling:
I like a variety of collected twigs -fallen, never ripped off a living tree- and inch-thick chopped up logs (note my lovely assistant below, using a borrowed full-size axe from a kindly neigbour who was less than impressed with our small maul).




and the fruits of his labour (note our mini version of an axe):





And of course, there's always the sunday paper -which is what I'll be using.

The Logs:
Drier the better, that's key when picking up logs at local sellers. Some places are nice enough to sell little bundles with dried bark and twig kindling as well. Give the wood a squeeze and a sniff -damp wood will smell musty and you'll be able to feel the moisture, if so, move along, it's just too much of a bother to use wet wood.

Tip: I like to keep a spare rain fly in my tent pack to put over our log pile for when the inevitable rain shower comes along.


The Structure:

There are a variety of ways to shape the fire, I like an amalgam of two basics -the log cabin and the teepee as seen below.



Create a log cabin-like square base with 2 large logs and kindling sticks placed perpendicularly on top. The large logs raise the kindling sticks off the ground and allows air to circulate, which is crucial for the fire to thrive. In that raised area, wedge your fire starter.

The point is to have the quick burning fire starter create enough flame to get the next quickest burning items -the kindling- to ignite, which in turn, sustain enough heat to get the large logs to work up a good, red, burn.

Around the log cabin, I like to place twig kindling around in the teepee shape. It creates a good surround of fire in addition to the kindling and starter within

Then strike up an extra long match, and spark all the firestarters.

Keep a good pile of kindling handy, you'll be surprised at how quickly they'll burn up. Tend the fire, in the beginning stages, blow, if need be, fan, if you like, add a bit of kindling here and there, until you see that the fire is evenly caught and toasting the larger logs.

Once you have a good roar going, be sure to keep stoking it with large logs -you'll be set for the night!

P.S. I'll dedicate an upcoming post to axes and axe techniques and alternative fire lighters.

Happy toasting.